Proving blockchain ROI for insurance: one $800m opportunity

RiskBlock’s approach to getting projects into production ASAP has seen their first blockchain go live within six months of forming: Nationwide’s proof of insurance launched just before the new year. IF the same concept is applied to the trucking industry, Ledger Insights estimates the concept can save as much as $800m a year.

The current Nationwide application targets regular drivers. So if you’re involved in an accident, and both parties have the app, bumping phones will allow an exchange of insurance information. Most importantly with the confidence that it’s the current state of insurance, unlike a piece of paper where the policy may have been canceled.

Right now, it’s purely Nationwide so there’s a good chance both drivers won’t have the app. But it could get pretty interesting when other insurers adopt it. Even better, the publicity highlighted an extremely juicy application.

In the trucking industry, before taking on a load, the driver has to prove he has the insurance. This process is currently manual involving phoning, emailing and faxing. It takes 15-20 minutes per load. 200,000 times a day.

Ledger Insights researched trucker pay rates. While average trucker earnings are $23 per hour, long-haul truckers can earn around $45 an hour, giving a potential saving of $2.25m a day or $821 million a year. Even with lower trucker rates, the savings are still huge. And this only counts the trucker time saving, never mind the other person handling the logistics.

Even better, the Nationwide blockchain is not far off what the truckers need. If only one or two insurers have implemented this blockchain, and you were running a trucking company, you’d likely be factoring the time savings into your insurance cost calculations.
Now there’s a competitive advantage.

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” Jack Welch